After Days (The After Days Trilogy) (27 page)

I watched Sonny from my vantage on the floor. He stayed focused on the road ahead, but when it was clear that the occupants of the vehicle had slowed to the pace of the truck, he looked down at them and waved. They didn’t pass though and just as I was thinking the game was up, he put a hand to his ear and made a strange face as though trying to understand something.

I heard him make an “Ahh” sound and he reached out and flicked the lights on. The SUV’s horn tooted and Sonny waved thanks. After a few painful seconds the other vehicle sped up and overtook us before shooting off.

“They’re gone,” Sonny said. Luke and I struggled back into our seats.

“My bad about the headlights, maybe they would have just passed if
I hadn’t made the call to switch them off while we were driving,” I said.

“Yeah! What was that? I can’t believe they didn’t try and pull us over. This truck is pretty damaged,” Luke said.

“Don’t worry Isaac, it worked out okay. Maybe seeing me in the driver’s seat allayed any suspicions they might have had about the damage. If I had to guess, I would say that was a government vehicle, not military. The driver wasn’t wearing a uniform, but he was definitely Chinese.

“
I don’t think them being on the road had anything to do with your attack back in Concord, but we still need to be wary of heat from that little escapade.”

“Yeah we dodged a
nother bullet – you played it real cool Sonny, well done. I am worried about what it means for the road ahead though, what if they have some sort of checkpoint or base up the I-95?” Luke asked.

“If there is, we're screwed,” I said. “I think maybe we should take the truck all the way into Lincoln. It’s the only disguise we have. If a military vehicle passes us while we’re walking along the freeway on foot, you know for sure that they’ll take us. At least in the truck we have some chance.”

“Yeah,” Sonny nodded. “I'm still worried that it'll make it easier to track us if the Chinese find the truck further down the road, but it'll certainly be a safer and warmer trip.”

“Why don't we take it all the way to Drake Mountain?” Luke asked.

“Too risky, if there are refugees there or nearby, it might lead the Chinese right to them,” Sonny said.

“Yep, it looks like we're going to have to walk at least a couple of miles in the snow either way,”

“Worse than that,” Sonny laughed. “The road from Lincoln to the Drake Mountain Ski Lodge is all up hill.”

“Great,” said Luke, and I could almost hear the groan in his voice. “This is not going to be fun.”

The snow had resumed what could reasonably be called dumping down again. We rode in silence for about fifteen minutes, each lost in our own thoughts. I dared to hope we might make it to our destination without any other encounters with the Chinese. It was not to be, however. We had just passed a sign proclaiming that the exit to Lincoln was in five miles when we saw four sets of headlights speeding from the opposite direction toward Concord.

“Uh oh. Those are most definitely Hummers and they are in a real hurry. The word is out…” said Luke.

We watched as the line of vehicles sped past. For a second I thought we were safe and then I saw one slow and turn onto the snow covered grass that separated us from them.

“Crap!”

As soon as it veered from its course, Sonny, as though anticipating it, immediately planted his foot. The engine of the truck whined in protest and it seemed to max out at 65 mph. The headlights of the Hummer closed quicker than seemed fair and I found myself leaning forward as if trying to help propel the truck.

The wind whistled through the broken windows. My ears were numb; the beanie I was wearing offered little protection from the wind-chill. Miraculously, once it had caught up with us, the pursuing vehicle slowed so that it maintained about a two hundred foot gap between us and them. I had my gun out and had reloaded it. Luke held his crossbow cocked in his hand and the rocket launcher was at his feet, along with the remaining two grenades.

“Why aren’t they pulling us over?” I shouted. 

“I think they called for assistance!” Sony yelled over the howling wind. “There is another set of headlights coming up behind the first.”

That explained it; they were waiting for a second Hummer before they ran us down. If their commanders had put two and two together, they would know we were the same truck that had busted up their roadblock and had struck again at the bar. We could assume they would display extreme caution.

I felt a sinking feeling as the headlights of the second Hummer caught up with the first. The first Hummer moved into the overtaking lane and sped up as both vehicles began to close in on us. I turned back to the highway and was amazed when I saw the off ramp in the distance. Just another two minutes and we would make it.

Sonny stomped the accelerator to the floor of the truck and seemed to eke out another few miles an hour, but it wasn’t enough. They had us. As the Hummer in the overtaking lane began to come up beside us, Sonny twisted the wheel hard, crashing into its front fender. Metal screeched and the Chinese vehicle immediately braked and slowed as Sonny veered back into his own lane.

It bought us the time we needed and suddenly we hit the off ramp without slowing, all three of us thrown into the air, bumping our heads on the ceiling of the cab. Luke and I gripped the dash as we headed for a set of blacked out traffic lights.

Sonny slowed only slightly as he took a wide turn onto the two lane road that bisected Lincoln and the freeway, and for one sickening moment I thought the truck would tip right over. It didn’t and when it righted itself with a heavy bump, I saw Luke take a quick look back through his broken window.

“They’re still hot on our tails, the good news though is that their Hummers don’t have machine gun turrets on the top,” he reported.

I was thankful that he didn’t try to take a potshot at them with his crossbow or the rocket launcher. We couldn’t afford to waste a shot. I felt pretty sure that very soon we were going to need every last projectile we had. 

I was thinking furiously, we had to lose these guys or we were screwed. We couldn’t continue to outrun them, and pretty soon they‘d probably call in air support. I made a quick decision. “Sonny, take a right into the next alley you see.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? We’ll be trapped if it’s not open at the other end…”

“We have to try something, we can’t risk air support arriving before we do.”

“All right, what do you have in mind?”

“Luke, make sure your rocket launcher is ready to fire, if we can disable the one in front it will block the second from following us. Here, take this one Sonny!” I gestured wildly to the narrow alley coming up fast on our right.

The tires screeched as he swung us into it and I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw it was open at the other end. The truck narrowly squeezed past a large dumpster and I yelled, “Pull up!”

Luke and I jumped out just as the first Hummer pulled into the alley. Luke began to bring the rocket launcher up into firing position.

“Wait! Help me move this dumpster first.”

We heaved it into the middle of the alley as the second Hummer turned in behind the first. The first squealed to a halt about fifty feet away as we ran back behind the dumpster and Chinese soldiers began to pile out. I turned to scream fire. I didn’t need to. The launcher was already nestled into
Luke’s shoulder as he took aim through the sight.

One of the soldiers managed to squeeze off a burst from their weapon and I ducked as some bullets whizzed by and others thunked into the dumpster. Luke didn’t flinch, and as the panicked soldiers turned to run, he fired. The rocket launcher jerked in his arm and forced him back a foot as the grenade zeroed in on the front grill of the Hummer. There was an almighty whump and a burst of heat as the front of the Hummer exploded, the vehicle
flying into the air a few feet before crashing back to the pavement.

Without exception, all of the soldiers that had
jumped from the vehicle were cut down by the blast. The twisted, smoking wreckage of the vehicle now blocked off the alley. I heard shots being fired from behind the smoking wreck. Luke looked a little dazed and I grabbed his arm.

“Quick! Back to the truck,” I yelled and we both ran for the
cab.

As we passed, I could hear Ben shouting questions from inside the cargo bay and I called back. “Stay down flat on the floor till I give you the all clear!”

Luke and I piled back into the truck cabin and Sonny had it moving before I had even pulled the door shut. He took a sharp left at the end of the alley and once again the truck lurched treacherously.

I heard muffled screams in the back and was thankful I wasn’t in the cargo bay. If we managed to get out of this, they would again be a bruised and sorry group of people. It was then I realized that there was something wrong with Luke. I heard him gasp as the truck righted itself.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

Luke was a pale guy at the best of times, but his face now
was the color of ash. He smiled ruefully at me and pulled his heavy jacket open.

“Honey, I forgot to duck…” he said.

My heart sunk when I saw the bullet wound. The round had taken him in the abdomen and blood was seeping steadily from the wound. At least he was still joking, so maybe that meant it wasn’t too bad. Sonny took another left and Luke flinched. We were headed back to the main road.

“I don’t think it went through man.”

He lifted his jacket at the back and turned so I could see. He was right, it hadn’t. I felt helpless. My best friend was shot and we had no way to care for him. I felt tears sting my eyes as I looked at him. His face was pale but his crooked smile was still in place.

“Don’t worry Chief, it’s going to take more than a little lead to bring me down.”

“Get something on that to staunch the bleeding,” Sonny ordered, “the first aid kit is in the glove box.”

We turned right onto the main road and Sonny again floored the accelerator. There was no sign of the second Hummer, but I knew it was only a matter of time before they were tailing us again.

I pulled out the kit and sopped up the blood as best I could. His wound didn’t seem to be bleeding too badly thankfully, but I knew an abdomen shot was supposed to be one of the worst. I bandaged Luke as best I could, thankful that he didn’t try to crack jokes the whole time. 

“We’re almost out of Lincoln, I think we need to dump the truck. It will be harder for them to trace us on foot.”

Sonny argued for a driving on, debating that it would be too hard on the wounded, but in the end a pair of headlights in the distance behind us won me the argument.

Again luck was on our side, one of the last buildings on our side of the street was a three storey office building. We took a left into its underground parking garage and I jumped out along with Sonny and ran to the back of the truck. I answered the rush of questions as best I could and ushered our shaken passengers together.

Luke was surprisingly mobile considering his wound. Both he and Sonny had been shot and were still trooping on, it made me ashamed of the groaning I had done over my bruised ribs.

I took the rocket launcher and last grenade from Luke. He didn’t argue and I knew he was hurting more than he was letting on. Brooke fussed over him and he allayed her fears, telling her it hadn’t hit bones or anything vital, but hurt like Hell. Indigo looked concerned and put a hand on my arm, asking if I was alright. I nodded and asked her the same.

“Yeah, shaken but not stirred,” she said with a small smile, before going back to the others.

We gathered what we could carry from the truck and I led my people to the rear of the small parking garage. We took fire stairs up into the
laneway behind the building and began walking. My people. I think I had finally come to terms with the fact that I had a new place to belong. Well not a place exactly, but a family.

It’s funny how adversity can bring strangers closer than blood. My musings were interrupted when we heard the engine of the second Hummer speeding down the main street. We all froze until it had
passed and faded into the distance. 

We
continued to follow the lane as it ran parallel to the main road. We had been travelling for about ten minutes when we heard the rumble of a motor, this time coming from the opposite direction. We ducked down behind a fence at the rear of the property we were behind as the headlights came over a rise. It was the same Hummer.

It was travelling much slower now, the occupants obviously scanning the area as they headed back into Lincoln. I waved everyone to their feet about two minutes after it had passed. Another ten minutes later and we passed the last of the houses that lined the highway. The road continued into light forest and began to climb uphill almost immediately. We moved into the tree line so that we could have cover but still follow the road.

Even with our wounded people and loaded up with what we were carrying, the walk up the mountain was not as bad as I thought it would be. Despite the relative ease, I could see Luke’s strength beginning to fade.

I moved in beside him and ordered him to put his arm around my shoulder. He looked like he was going to protest but did as I asked. We walked on and I prayed desperately that the safe haven we had travelled so far for actually existed...we had no back
up plan. It had to be there.